An introduction to the Christian community at
Hillside Evangelical Church

Hillside Evangelical Church is a community church that has been meeting in the heart of Greystones for over 120 years. The congregation consists of people from Greystones, Delgany, Kilcoole, Bray and from further a field. It is a mixed congregation gathering people from many walks of life, from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds. Sunday, by Sunday you will see families with young children and teenagers mixing with those who are more senior in years.

One of the things you will find we have in common is that we are a people who are seeking to explore and develop the reality of our Christian faith. We are a church that does not seek to find God through a set of rules and procedures. You can’t know someone in this way. However, God can be known, in a personal and real way. All that we do at Hillside seeks to encourage people to know God in a better way and to build a faith in God that is real and that impacts lives and relationships in the church and out into the local community.

So, if you come along what can you expect?

You will find us serious about knowing and worshipping God and anxious to learn more about him and to experience him through the teaching of his word, the Bible. But we are seeking to do that in a way that is relaxed and inclusive of everyone, whatever your experience of the Christian faith is. We seek to be real and honest about the realities of life and how God is involved in the details of our lives. Therefore there are moments of joy and celebration along with times of reflection and sorrow, as we seek to support one another through good and tough times.

Finally, here are some of our key convictions that characterise our services and times when we meet:

• We seek to teach and explore the Christian faith, as found in the Bible, in a way that is relevant to the lives of Christians today.
• We seek to praise God with contemporary music, without omitting the best of the older hymns.
• We seek to be inclusive; we are a bunch of ordinary people, who have discovered it is possible to have a personal relationship with an extraordinary God.
• We are a family church and so we have a Sunday school that helps our children understand the Christian faith.
• We seek to be accessible to those who know little of the Christian faith, or who are seeking some answers.

For a more specific list of our beliefs see our statement of faith.

The church is led by a team of leaders who have been recognised and appointed by the members of the church. Cassells Morrell, Kevin Barrett, Stephen Barrington & Colin Rohu. Together they seek to lead the church, in a humble and prayerful way, as outlined in the Bible.

What do we mean by Evangelical?

Evangelical is one of those words that has different meanings depending on one’s background. Below are some dictionary definitions, which we find helpful as a basis of what we understand to be evangelical. In short, we believe the reality of Christian message or gospel is good news to a needy world, which we seek to share with others. How we share it is so important because we do not seek to judge any individual person or speak from some superior position of enlightenment. But we are confident of this: that God continues to meet ordinary people like you and I, wherever we are, and that on knowing God one is never the same again.

e·van·gel·i·cal
(ê´vàn-jèl¹î-kel, èv´en-) also e·van·gel·ic (-jèl¹îk) adjective
Abbr. evan., evang.

1. Of, relating to, or in accordance with the Christian gospel, especially of the four gospel books of the New Testament.

gos·pel
(gòs¹pel) noun

1. The proclamation of the redemption preached by Jesus and the Apostles, which is the central content of Christian revelation.
2. Gospel. Bible. One of the first four books of the New Testament, describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and recording his teaching.